Most Pennsylvania state parks begin third summer without lifeguards, despite outcry for public safety

View full sizeThe Patriot-News, fileTwo cool their feet at Gifford Pinchot State Park.BY EVAN TROWBRIDGE, For The Patriot-News

When lifeguards showed up on Saturday for their first day of work this summer at Fuller Lake in Cumberland County, they were at one of only two beaches at Pennsylvania state parks that still require lifeguards.

This year marks the third summer since the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) eliminated lifeguards at the state parks’ public beaches, excluding Presque Isle State Park on Lake Erie. Fuller Lake was later added after a teenage boy drowned there in July 2008. Lifeguards are still stationed at pools in state parks.

The DCNR removed the lifeguards from lake beaches “for reasons of operating more efficiently, providing greater access to public beaches,” said DCNR press secretary Chris Novak.

But not everyone agrees.

“The decision that was made was an extremely unwise decision that placed saving money over public safety,” said Chris Brewster, president of the United States Lifesaving Association.

He added that lifeguarding is unique and shouldn’t be compared to other park services, like landscaping, “as just another service that is eliminated.”

Novak said lifeguards cost the parks more than $800,000 per year, but insists the decision wasn’t about money. It’s all been part of a 10-year program begun in 1998 to phase out the lifeguards at 58 of the 59 state park beaches, she said.

“If someone were to give us the money, I think that we have many other budgetary priorities first,” she said.

State Rep. Sue Helm, R-Susquehanna, thinks that it's time the state Legislature steps in to resolve the issue.

In March 2009, Helm introduced legislation that would require the DCNR to hire a “sufficient number” of lifeguards at public beaches. The bill set aside $1 million for hiring lifeguards.

However, after a hearing on the bill last May, it has been gathering dust in the House’s Tourism and Recreational Development Committee. Helm said she thinks the hearing was held “just to pacify” her, and hopes it doesn’t take a drowning to make people reconsider the decision.

But Novak said the move shouldn’t be seen as a safety concern, and lifeguards are still used at public pools in state parks.

“We are comfortable with the open swim policy that is in place,” she said. “There doesn’t seem to be a significant difference with or without lifeguards.”

Novak pointed to one advantage of having beaches be “swim at your own risk” is that it allows the state parks to leave them open longer in the year. Lifeguards were often high-school and college students in the past. When they left in August to go back to school or on vacations, beaches struggled to stay open, Novak said.

She said that Pennsylvanians seem complacent with the measures.

“People have gotten suited to it and seem to accept it,” she said, adding that other states practice similar measures. “I would say that’s probably the norm.”

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